DJI A2 Hands-on

BorisS

BorisS

Drone Enthusiast
Hi guys got a DJI A2 controller for test purposes today to see what i can do for me.
Installed it today on my X8 Herkules Build.

General to the casing it is obvious that its higher quality than the WKM plastic cases that were used before !

View attachment 13665View attachment 13666View attachment 13667

judged from the size there also seems to be a hardware upgrade to the GPS/Compass module ! Also the cabling on the modul has some sort of ferreting component to it !

View attachment 13668

Cant say a lot yet just a fast intallation up to now, but some points i liked !

1. Channel mapping finally ! The limitation of only having 7..9 (whatever it was) channels that can be assigned are over. No matter what system when single cable connection so S-bus PPM i guess up to 16 channels can be used. So no more I want to remotly tune my gains and than i dont have a channel left for IOC and a go home swtich etc.

2. Finally also a motor test feature, which i guess is also offered now for the other hardware versions just a question of the FW. But the positive, fast check if all motors are connected correctly via PWM cable.

More to come. Have to play arround a little and take the bird on a spin this weekend !

Boris
 

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T

Tahoe Ed

Active Member
Boris,

Got mine as well. Nice package. If you are setting up in Futaba make sure you are in Multi. There are a variety of flavors so check your manual for the right one for your hardware. I am using a 8FGS and have it set for Multi2.
 

BorisS

BorisS

Drone Enthusiast
Tahoe Ed said:
Boris,

Got mine as well. Nice package. If you are setting up in Futaba make sure you are in Multi. There are a variety of flavors so check your manual for the right one for your hardware. I am using a 8FGS and have it set for Multi2.
Click to expand...

Thanks ED, i will be sticking to my Jeti Dc 16 and PPM everything working at the moment !

Have to check out these F1 to F4 virtually mapping D1 to D4 ports on the maincontroller, if i understand correctly they should allow me to pass through any channel, which would be great if I understand correclty letting me allow to any servo output although using single wire setup. A blessing for a one man operation and not wanting to use a second receiver in dual mode !

Boris
 


D

deluge2

Member
Thanks for the intro review. I look forward to reading about your in-flight experiences. One question, not sure what you mean by '...the cabling on the module has some sort of ferreting component to it." Are you referring to the compenent that is presumably a choke or filter for RFI?

Thanks,
Steve

BorisS said:
Hi guys got a DJI A2 controller for test purposes today to see what i can do for me.
Installed it today on my X8 Herkules Build.

General to the casing it is obvious that its higher quality than the WKM plastic cases that were used before !

View attachment 17253View attachment 17254View attachment 17255

judged from the size there also seems to be a hardware upgrade to the GPS/Compass module ! Also the cabling on the modul has some sort of ferreting component to it !

View attachment 17256

Cant say a lot yet just a fast intallation up to now, but some points i liked !

1. Channel mapping finally ! The limitation of only having 7..9 (whatever it was) channels that can be assigned are over. No matter what system when single cable connection so S-bus PPM i guess up to 16 channels can be used. So no more I want to remotly tune my gains and than i dont have a channel left for IOC and a go home swtich etc.

2. Finally also a motor test feature, which i guess is also offered now for the other hardware versions just a question of the FW. But the positive, fast check if all motors are connected correctly via PWM cable.

More to come. Have to play arround a little and take the bird on a spin this weekend !

Boris
Click to expand...
 

BorisS

BorisS

Drone Enthusiast
deluge2 said:
Thanks for the intro review. I look forward to reading about your in-flight experiences. One question, not sure what you mean by '...the cabling on the module has some sort of ferreting component to it." Are you referring to the compenent that is presumably a choke or filter for RFI?

Thanks,
Steve
Click to expand...

Hi Steve yes along these lines ! I am not around my copters at the moment so cant post a pic of the part. At the same time I cant find a pic of the parts when searching in google for the A2 which seems strange.

I am not quite sure yet what the background is off the two can bus ports on the main controller. Speculating its two separated can bus systems, one canbus 1 taking the actual life line which is the IMU and GPS modul. Canbus 2 for the secondary not so important parts as the PMU and LED also taking in the can-bus voltage over the PMU.

I remember at a certain point when the OSD was introduced it was mentioned that is supports or adds to the can-bus power. Guess this time it was thought of through i more detail for additional components that might come !

Boris
 

Hexacrafter

Hexacrafter

Manufacturer
Interesting..
The new SuperX from XA has the larger GPC/ Compass Puck as well.....The Module about 3" from the puck on the XA unit houses a battery according to my discussions with XAA. It is used to hold GPS information in memory. I wounder if this is the same with the new larger DJI GSP/ Compass?

Andrew
 
Last edited by a moderator:

E

Electro 2

Member
Hexacrafter said:
Interesting..
The new SuperX from XA has the larger GPC/ Compass Puck as well.....The Module about 3" from the puck on the XA unit houses a battery according to my discussions with XAA. It is used to hold GPS information in memory. I wounder if this is the same with the new larger DJI GSP/ Compass?
Click to expand...

No. The DJI thing is clearly a ferrite choke, which should be standard on any DJI install to my way of thinking, the XA SX unit is not. Own one.
 


BorisS

BorisS

Drone Enthusiast
hmmm one of you using the A2 yet with a PPM RX. I just wanted to use the F1 to F4 ports to MAP D1 and D2 to control my landinggear and a Relay thats installed before just to take care no mishaps occur on the ground. I am able to use channel 8 and pass it through port F2 to the relay and have that working. So I went on with channel 9 for the actuall servos of the LG. But i cant get any channels over 8 working.

I check everything on my DC 16 and my RSAT RX is set to 16 channels but no feedback in the assistant for any channels above channel 8

Thanks

Boris
 

Droider

Droider

Drone Enthusiast
On your tail Boris.

Just got mine and working on new frames at the moment so I am a bit behind you.. Did I not see somewhere in the distructions something about the landing gear HAVING to be in a certain channel?

Dave
 

BorisS

BorisS

Drone Enthusiast
Droider said:
On your tail Boris.

Just got mine and working on new frames at the moment so I am a bit behind you.. Did I not see somewhere in the distructions something about the landing gear HAVING to be in a certain channel?

Dave
Click to expand...


No it doesn't. A2 allows you though to route channels from a sbus or PPM receiver out to single physical ports f1 to f4. So any ppm channel 1 through 16 can operate a servo for example when hooked up to port F1 ... F2. The problem though is that the A2 at the moment only seems to recognize 8 channels from a PPM receiver. Think its a A2 FW thing, lets see what DJI says.

Boris
 

BorisS

BorisS

Drone Enthusiast
By the way anybody any info if the Ipad groundstation and 2.4 ghz BT module will work with the A2, Up to now I understand that is works with the WKM and NAZA and thats it !

Boris
 

redridinghood

redridinghood

Member
BorisS said:
No it doesn't. A2 allows you though to route channels from a sbus or PPM receiver out to single physical ports f1 to f4. So any ppm channel 1 through 16 can operate a servo for example when hooked up to port F1 ... F2. The problem though is that the A2 at the moment only seems to recognize 8 channels from a PPM receiver. Think its a A2 FW thing, lets see what DJI says.

Boris
Click to expand...

Boris did you configure the amount of channels and which channels are in the PPM output stream via the EX explorer?
 


BorisS

BorisS

Drone Enthusiast
redridinghood said:
Boris did you configure the amount of channels and which channels are in the PPM output stream via the EX explorer?
Click to expand...

Japp that was the first thing I did, set the amount of PPM channels to 16. If I use the jetibox on the DC 16 and connect to the RSAT, I can actually see that the values on channel 16 change if a flick the switch assigned to channel 16 on the DC16. So i guess Jeti itself knows its 16 channels and the RSAT actually recognises a change on channel 16.
Thas the reason i am thinking that DJI didnt open the last 8 channels for ppm.
 

BorisS

BorisS

Drone Enthusiast
Tahoe Ed said:
Boris, do you have your Tx set to multi? I have my 8FGS set to multi2 and have 12 linear channels to deal with. Here is a guys set up with a 14SG, http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=26167095&postcount=149 Maybe it will help.
Click to expand...

Thanks ED. Not sure what the equivalent of multi 2 is on the jeti setup but I guess it's setting the ppm channels to 16, if I understood you correctly and multi 2 is a futaba setting and has nothing to do with the a2 controller itself ?

Thank

Boris
 


Droider

Droider

Drone Enthusiast
Aye Up Boris .... at least you got something... with Spektrum I have been at it since 7am and just given up!

Found also they only support DX6 and DX8!!!! WTF! what use is a DX6?

Dave
 

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